Hay on Monday - a bit hacked off!

[angelene]

We're going to Hay on Monday as it's reasonably local to us and we're hoping to see it in less monsoon conditions than there were last year.

Just looked at the programme though and there are no special events for younger children - it all starts at 7 upwards. Julia Donaldson, which DD and me would have absolutely loved, is on Saturday when we can't go [stamps foot in tantrum].

I'm just a bit hacked off that there isn't more of an age range on the bank holiday when there's bound to be lots of families there.

Anyone else going?

[claricebeansmum]

This sort of thing hacks me off too - lots of things like this have stuff for children which really means little ones and not much for older ones.

It seems a shame they can't spread stuff over the festival...

[ICantFindAFreeNickName]

We are going next week & I'm hacked off that there seems to be lots for my older child but not much for my younger daughter. The few things that are on for her age range, sold out within days. She's being dragged to see lots of events that are suitable for her older brother.

[angelene]

We're just going to go up and have a general mooch around, lunch and whatnot. DD is 3.7 and all the kids stuff on is for 7+, but it's something a bit different to do on a bank holiday.

[amiworryingfornothing]

We are going Tues-Fri.
They tend to have more adult stuff at the weekends, and child/teenage stuff mid-week.

Tbh though it's not really a formula ideally suited for tinies, is it? I mean there are activities and so on that they can take part in, but the whole site and listen to a speaker for an hour: it's not for the youngest is it? Even though they may enjoy books.

We went last year and are taking three boys this year - 10, 11 and 14. They are all keen readers and are desperately excited about going.

[angelene]

Well we went today and enjoyed it.

The Hay Fever kids area is great (last year it was flooded out and wasn't there), there is a big craft area and there was storytime and Peter Rabbit showed up so that covered the younger ones. We went into the town and found the best children's bookshop ever - Rose's - with an amazing range of first editions of most of the books I read as a child (when I was an incredibly voracious reader). My mum and I had great fun there and I bought a beautiful, old-fashioned Cinderella pop-up book.

We hadn't booked any talks because it would never work with DD in tow, but there was enough to keep her interested with the little garden bit, and some of the Techniquest exhibits as well.

It's just a nice thing to do for a change, and to be honest it's very reasonable - free to get in and the kids area is all free etc.

Enjoy if you're going!